Getting to Know Eachother
by past is today
Summary: I series of one shots taking place through and after the Maleficent movie.
1. In Her Lap

It was a windy night and flying back from the human castle was proving very hard for Diaval. He had done his best to stay close to the ground and out of the wind but that had meant flying through the wall of thorns his mistress had created. The wind was blocked there and he had become complacent unintentionally allowing a sudden breeze to blow him into one of the thorns.

He squawked in pain trying desperately to right himself before he could run careen out of control and impale more then just his wing. He managed, barely and managed also to fly the short ways back to his mistress collapsing on the ground in front of her with a apologetic caw.

"Diaval what..." She started to snap before she saw the blood spreading out from his wing. "Oh." she said softly. She lent down and reached out her long elegant hands, he flinched slightly as they slid under him, even though she was being gentle, it still hurt. He wasn't used to her being this gentle either.

She lifted him equally, gently, and settled him on her lap. He made a questioning noise in his throat, ruffling up his feathers nervously but she ignored him. He liked being this close to her usually he wouldn't presume to get this close to her no matter how much he wanted to, after all he was only her servant. Still she was the one moving him closer so, tentatively, he settled himself in her lap.

She extended his injured wing from his body, he squawked in pain and instinctively tried to pull his wing out of her grip.

"Diaval!" She reprimanded sharply and he stilled as much as he could. It didn't feel right for anyone to be holding his wing like this, even his mistress. Wings were too fragile of things, too easily broken, but he held still as she ran her fingertips lightly over his feathers. He could feel the warmth of her magic seeping into him and he closed his black eyes as the gold light began knitting his wing back together.

It hurt but almost in a good way, he know instinctively that this pain was a healing one and so he stayed quiet. Her fingers had smoothed slowly over his feathers more than ten times by the time the healing was done, and he had grown comfortable with the feeling. Once the pain had faded from his wing he fully expected Maleficent to release his wing and push him off her lap but she didn't.

Instead her fingers kept moving over his feathers in a slow, and steady rhythm that was quickly making him to relaxed to stay awake. Before he fell asleep he opened his eyes one more time and looked up at her. She was gazing up at the sky watching the sort rage of the shelter of her tree, her eyes flicked about the sky, seeming to follow the winds as if imagining what it would be like to ride such wild winds.

Her mind was far away from him, far away from this world and this time. It almost made him feel guilty, like he was taking advantage of her distraction by remaining in her lap. After all she didn't like being close with people. Besides, she had sent him to gather information at the castle. She would want to hear it, he should remind her. But she would turn him into a human so he could report and in that form she certainly wouldn't let him anywhere near this close to her.

Yes he should definitely remind her, but he remained all the same. Quietly he settled himself more comfortably making sure not to pull on his wing. He fluffed up his feathers and tucked his beak into the plumage on his chest. He heard his mistresses breathing quickening and slowing with the howling of the winds and felt her warm gentle touches over his wing. His black eyes slid shut slowly and he slept.


	2. Like Preening

Aurora had left the cottage early in the morning as she almost always did. She loved her aunties but they could get a little boring sometimes, and they never seemed to notice she was gone. She walked to a field near the wall of thorns, maybe it was because the magic of the moors spilled over here, but the flowers always seemed thicker in these fields. She settled herself in a particularly thick patch of purple flowers, closed her eyes, and breathed in the fresh scent happily before beginning to pick some of the flowers and braid them through her hair.

"Aurora?" She heard a familiar voice calling her. Diaval! She leapt to her feet and looked around spotting him standing at the edge of the wall smiling in that uncertain way of his.

"Diaval!" She exclaimed running over to him and throwing her arms around him happily. He hugged her back gently but warmly until she backed up. "Did my fairy godmother send you or did you just come to visit?" She asked still smiling, she would be happy either way. If her godmother sent him then she would be able to go into the moors, but if he had come to visit then she would have company besides her aunties for the day.

"I've just come to visit." He answered in the quiet husky voice. So like the cawing she was more accustomed to. He smiled at her questioningly as if to ask if that was alright. She laughed and grabbed his arm pulling him over to the place she had been sitting and pulled him down next to her so they could talk.

She mostly asked him though, about what was going on in the rest of the world. She liked to hear about what was going on in the castle almost as much as Maleficent did. Though for completely different reasons. Diaval told her all he could. She started braiding her hair again as he talked, it didn't take her long to notice how transfixed he was by the motions and the result of the braiding. She let the conversation trail off waiting for him to ask the question she knew he wanted to, if it was quiet for long enough she knew he would.

"Aurora?" He asked tentatively just as she had expected.

"Yes Diaval?" She asked encouragingly.

"Would you teach me how to do that?" He asked gesturing to her braid.

"Of course I would Diaval." She said, unsurprised but slightly confused by the request. "Why would you want to learn? Your hair isn't long enough to braid."

"Well it's in a ravens nature to want to groom or preen the ones we care about and neither you or mistress have any feathers to preen, but you both have such lovely hair, maybe if I could brush and braid it and such that would be enough?"

He had been looking down fiddling with one of the flowers as he spoke but he looked up questioningly at her once he was done. He obviously wasn't sure it was a good idea, He still didn't know that much about human and fay customs and over the years Maleficent had taught him not to assume anything was alright so he needed to make sure.

"I think that's a lovely idea Diaval of course I'll teach you!" Aurora said enthusiastically. Diaval would be a good student she already knew, it would be a wonderful way to spend the day. "There are different types of braiding too! This will be fun!" He grinned at her enthusiasm and settled down further to listen to her instructions and practice on her hair.

By the end of the day he could do not only a regular braid, but also one that Aurora called a 'fish tail braid' though, he couldn't figure out why and was starting to get the nag of a 'french braid'. The separated when the sun was just starting to disappear behind the trees, this was the time when both Aurora's aunties and Maleficent would be looking for the two of them to return.

Diaval walked back through the forest of thorns with none of the trepidation that others felt, the thorns made way for him as both he and they were creations of Maleficent's magic. He walked out of the other side of the wall whistling happily though, he still wasn't very good at whistling in this form and half the time it only came out as a blowing sound. He found Maleficent quickly, it wasn't hard, at this time of day she liked to go up to one of the cliffs to watch the sunset. He was puffing slightly from the climb when he flopped down next to her on the edge on the cliff.

"Did you have a good time with Aurora?" She asked without looking at him. She didn't really sound like she cared but Diaval was pleased she asked, even though she probably wouldn't listen to the answer it was her giving him permission to speak as he wished. He enjoyed talking a bit to much she told him so he often tried not to speak until he was asked a question though he still didn't know when to stop talking after that.

"I did Mistress." He said happily sitting up and dangling his legs over the edge of the cliff as she was doing. "She asked about what is going on in the rest of the kingdom as usual but then she taught me how to do something new."

"What did she teach you?" Maleficent asked in the same uninterested tone, well she was listening with half of her attention at least.

"Would it be alright if I showed you rather then told you Mistress?" Diaval asked tentatively.

"I suppose so." Maleficent said with a shrug not taking her eyes ofter the red sky. "Aurora would hardly have taught you anything inappropriate." Diaval breathed a small sigh of relief and grinned moving around behind his mistress. He decided to do the 'fishtail braid' thing because it was a bit more impressive then the regular one. It took longer but Maleficent was showing no sign of moving so Diaval thought he probably had the time.

Sure enough she sat still as the sun light disappeared and the stars emerged and the moon rose giving Diaval enough light to work with. He finished not long after the moon had risen trying the braid off with a green ribbon Aurora had given him, because they had both agreed Maleficent would like it and grinned down at his work.

"I'm finished." He announced proudly and sat back on his heals as Maleficent reached back to feel what he had done to her hair.

"So Aurora taught you how to braid?" She asked and he couldn't miss the small smile on her face or in her voice.

"Yes mistress." Diaval said happily. "It looked like an enjoyable thing to do and I thought it might please to have your hair decorated." He had not missed his mistresses love for pretty things, even if they were mostly dark things, it was a lot like a raven too. That was what had first given him the idea, along with the fancy hair some women at the castle sported.

"You were right Diaval." Maleficent praised softly. He basked in it, glad that he had done something that made her happy. "Now I think it's time we went back to our nest and settled down for the night." She stood up smoothly and transformed Diaval back into a raven with a flick of her wrist. He followed her through the air back to their nest and settled on a branch above where she was sleeping.

He knew she wouldn't fall asleep very quickly at all, but as a bird it was hard for him to stay awake once it was dark so he fell asleep quickly. Still he couldn't help but notice how she stroked the braid one for time and smiled contentedly before she settled down and he thought that maybe, just maybe, she would sleep better this night.


	3. Like a Parent their Chick

It had been days since Maleficent had last eaten. Diaval wasn't sure how many, two, maybe three, time measurements was not his strong suit when he was in his natural form. All he knew was he was starting to worry. He would have been less worried if she had been up and moving. She thought she was too busy to eat but no. It had been about that long since she had last moved as well.

She had been laying in her nest, with her eyes closed like she was asleep, but she couldn't be asleep for this long could she? It was scaring him and he didn't know what to do about it. He had been bringing her things to eat, fruit, berries nut and such. Small things he could lift in his beak. He didn't know what to do with them, so he placed them inside her half opened hand. She hadn't reacted at all, she hadn't even shifted.

If it weren't for the slow subtle rise and fall of her chest Diaval might have thought she was dead. He was starting to get very scared that, that's what she wanted to be. Maybe even was trying to be. Maybe everything had become to much for her and she wanted to die.

That thought made him so panicked he didn't know what to do with his body, he wanted to squawk and flail his wings to expel the panic. But on the other hand he wanted to collapse from the overwhelming thought of the idea and the sorrow in it. He wasn't enough for her, he wasn't enough for her. Why should he be? He wasn't important. He quailed at the idea. She was everything to him, the most important thing in his world, was his world and he wasn't even enough to keep her alive.

No! He shook his head and ruffled up his feathers. No, if he was not important to her now he would make himself important to her! He would make her want to live! He would! He just had to keep her alive until he did, until she realized how much she meant to him.

With renewed resolve, he tore a clump of blackberries off their bush, and took off flying as fast as he could while trying not to shake any of the ripe berries of their stems. He managed fairly successfully, with only one berry falling as he flew. Once he got back to her nest he was faced with another problem. Obviously placing the food in her hand had been doing no good, but as he looked her over, he noticed something he hadn't thought to notice before. Her jaw was relaxed enough that her mouth was slightly open. Maybe if he was bold enough he could drop a berry directly into her mouth.

He shifted from foot to foot unsure if he was bold enough. He tilted his head and made a noise in his throat. As expected she didn't react, but that didn't mean she wouldn't react in anger if he brought their mouths so close together. He understood that for humans and fairies that was a thing of importance. Though he couldn't understand why. Maybe even though he was a bird at the moment, she would be angry about it.

He had almost convinced himself when he realized one thing. It had also been that long since she had had anything to drink. He had heard that really you could only go three days without liquids. He couldn't carry back water but at least the berries had juice in them, which was something.

He placed the clump down on the floor of the nest, and carefully plucked one of the ripest berries from the stem. He took off and landed next to her head making sure not to step on her, or cuff her with his wings, he moved closer insistently his head tilting so he could see her better.

When he dropped the berry into her mouth he aimed carefully so it would fall onto her tongue and not to the back of her throat and then jumped back quickly in case she reacted violently. She didn't. She froze even more then she had been, actually stopping breathing for a moment, before slowly her tongue moved to crush the berry against the roof of her mouth letting the sweet and tart juice run down to where her reflexes prompted her to swallow.

Diaval felt like cawing and flapping his wings in joy when he saw her swallow but he kept it quietly in, feeling like he was going to explode in the nicest way he ever had. Having found a way that worked he quickly went back to the stem and plucked another berry, dropping it as well into her mouth. She swallowed more quickly this time and they continued like that, he went and got one more stem of berries, pausing to dip it in a clear stream so that the small cups could collect as much liquid as they could.

They did this with just over twenty berries. Not that many to be sure but better then nothing. Diaval would have kept going, it was Maleficent who stopped him. She closed her mouth and turned her head to the side. Her first movement in days, and, the first real sign of life and will. Diaval was too happy about that to be really disappointed she didn't eat more.

Less hesitantly this time he moved closer to her. Settling comfortable in the space between her shoulder and her neck. He had a feeling she could do with all the closeness and comfort she could get. It was warm there and he fluffed up his feathers, pressing their softness against her skin. He knew he had been right to settle there when her breathing began to shake. The sort of shaking of someone who is crying but trying their best not to let anyone notice.

Diaval dually pretended not to notice and just snuggled in deeper pretending to be asleep as Maleficent let go of a little bit of the sadness that he knew she was constantly carrying. She would feel a little bit better tomorrow, not much better but they could repeat this until she was. He was completely willing to nurse her as a parent their chick until she was strong again. He didn't think it would be long she had always been the strongest creature he had ever seen, and he was almost certain she always would be and as he fell asleep he was deeply glad that of all the fay in the world, she had become his mistress.


	4. What he Means

Maleficent sat on a cliff overlooking the moors, he crossed arms resting on her drawn up knees as she stared. She was trying to remember what the moors had looked like when she was a child before her heart had been twisted and she twisted the moors to suit her. She supposed she must still be twisting them now though it had long become unconscious. She doubted she could change it back now even if she wanted to.

Sometimes she did want to just because of the way the other fay treated her. They were afraid of her, all of them, hated her for what she had done to the moors and ran from her. They may actually have tried to overthrow her, even with her protection of the moors, if they hadn't been so afraid of her. She breathed deeply and closed her eyes. They needn't fear her, the moor was the last good thing left to her she would never spoil it, never hurt one of its creatures but still they ran from her.

They were afraid of her rage, they had all seen it when she had discovered why Stephan had cut off her wings. The first time she had returned to the moor after it had happened when they had first seen her without her wings. She had looked like a human then, they had felt pity for her, she had hated it so she had quickly disbanded it changing it to fear and hatred.

Now they thought she was a monster. Good. She wanted them to think that. She was evil, she had worked hard at it, she reveled in it, she was a monster. No one pitied a monster. Most of the time this was what she wanted but every now and then when feelings like this struck it became unbearable.

She rested her head on her arms and breathed a quite sigh. She was trying to remember times from her childhood when she hadn't been alone. When she had always been surrounded by other fay and had not known the meaning of fear, hatred or betrayal. It was hard for her to find those memories because nearly all of them had been soured by the betrayal of those in them.

This was the sort of mood that made her want to die. If she died everyone would be happy again. The moor would return to the way it was and the fay would shed their fear and live happy and free again. Stephan would have no reason to attack the moors any longer and could continue living in the power and luxury he had betrayed her for, though it didn't seem to be doing much good.

While spiraling in her depression she managed to convince herself that no one would miss her. Then she heard the flapping of wings a caw from behind her and she remembered she wasn't alone. She didn't turn around as she sent her magic back to Diaval, so he wouldn't be able to see her smile.

"Good day mistress." Diaval said in his usual cheerful tone so unlike hers. She didn't know how after so long of being with her, her negativity and gloom hadn't worn off on him but she was always glad it hadn't.

"Good day Diaval." She answered managing to control the smile in her face though it stayed on the inside. She wasn't alone, she had Diaval, unquestionable better than the fay that had all proven themselves fair whether friends. Diaval would never leave her the way they had, if he was going to he would have by now. "What have you seen today?" She asked as he settled himself on the ground next to her.

She doubted he had anything important to report from his happy go lucky demeanor, but still she listened as he chattered about that comings and goings of the court, rumored of affairs. Diaval was more interested in such things then she was but she humored it for once glad of his chattering as it reminded her she wasn't alone. Some day she supposed she should let him know how much he meant to her and how much his loyalty was worth. But not today.

She was still to damaged to admit attachments out loud or even fully except them within herself. She knew Diaval would never betray her or take advantage of her affection but what one knows is very different from what one fears and sometimes fears drown knowledge.

* * *

I of course do not own Maleficent or anything.

It seemed like I'd written a lot of things from Diaval's perspective and the next chapter will be as well so I wanted to write something from Maleficent's point of view. That's why it took longer, sorry about that the next one should come quicker.


End file.
